Why We’re Strong While Enduring These Strange Pandemic Times

Mac Davis Headshot
During the pandemic I'm living with some of my employees—we're all in this together.
During the pandemic I'm living with some of my employees—we're all in this together.

As I work on this, we are deep in the middle of the global pandemic, and there's a lot of fear throughout the industry (and the world). It's interesting, because in times like these you really find out who's running business right—the people getting hurt weren't taking care of finances and weren't taking care of their employees. I have 33 great employees, and right now, even though we're in a pandemic, for the most part everybody in my company still feels strong. I have yet to put anybody on unemployment. I've worked hard to make sure that we are financially stable, and I have a great team of employees who know I would do anything for them, but my business wasn't always that way.

Ten years ago I got divorced. I didn't have any children, my ex got the house and I owed the IRS $60,000. When I moved out, I made the decision that I wasn't going to live my life like that anymore, and that's when I started to do business right.

Around that time I was talking with a great friend of mine who's a builder and also my top client, and I told him I couldn't afford a bookkeeper. He responded, "If you hire a bookkeeper, you won't know you're losing that money because you're going to make that money up just by hiring them." He was right. Within a year's time I paid off my debt and was on the road to where I'm at now. Here are some changes that resulted:

We schedule every single thing

Before that, I had times in my business where my accounts receivables were super high—but I didn't have any money in the bank. I would think it was other people's fault, but it was my fault for not billing on time. Now our company is all about being super consistent in every thing we do. We have a project management system called Asana that we use to schedule every single thing. Anyone can assign tasks to me and I assign tasks to them. We do our billing and accounts receivable the same day every week. We're insanely anal about logging everything, but at this point we have more than 30 employees, multiple properties and trucks, two shops, two offices—many moving parts. If we aren't that scheduled, things get missed.


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I still meet with my bookkeeper once, sometimes twice a week. In our industry, our businesses are all about cash flow, and if you want to grow your business, you need to be on top of your finances. Once you start doing it, that's when you make money.

I enjoy life more

Before I had my money managed, I didn't enjoy life after I came home every day. All my mind was filled with was who owed me or what did I forget. Once I got good at money I was able to come home and enjoy my life at night—there was no afterthought of "I forgot that check" or "I forgot to send that bill." Now I come home and still think about business, but I'm not freaking out because I can't pay my bills.

We can take care of employees

Having financial stability also means you can provide stability, good pay and benefits for employees. I pay my top guys really well, and most of my top employees are on structured quarterly bonuses and have a 401k and insurance. If you want to grow, you have to offer that, because otherwise you're never going to keep people. Employees want to know they have a company that takes care of its finances, and my people never have to worry about that, even now during the pandemic.

We focus on the team culture

Of course, keeping employees is about so much more than money. I think the main reason people don't keep employees isn't as much about money as about how they treat them. I've worked hard to build a culture that shows people they are valued and are part of a team. We call it #teamMDF—Mac Davis Flooring. My motto for my business is that "nobody is more important than the broom"—meaning I'll sweep, somebody else will sweep, it doesn't matter how long you have been here, we all do the same thing. I think it keeps a level playing field so you don't get those big personalities.

We empower people

I also believe in empowering people to grow. Employees leave and do their own thing if they don't feel like they have ownership in the company. I find the more control you give away to your employees, the more it enriches your business. As an owner, it's easy to think you have to control every aspect of your company. I was raised with that old-school mentality, but today my ears are always open.


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We focus on fun, too

I'm always joking around with our staff, and I'm constantly trying to think of fun outside of work. In the summer we go on fishing trips, and we'll have barbecues. I take my office staff in a limo to a casino for the weekend and have nice meals. We have it on our Asana schedule to deliver donuts or lunch to our crews. It all builds morale.

We provide housing

We also have one other benefit for my employees that's unusual. Our two locations are on Nantucket Island and Cape Cod, and the housing prices are insane. On the island a two-bedroom apartment can easily go for $3,500 a month. I realized if I was going to keep my guys, I would have to rent or purchase some properties. I've purchased several properties over the years, and now I'm also building two warehouses for the company that will have two two-bedroom apartments. I charge the guys reduced rent from what I would charge anybody else—just enough to pay my mortgage. The bigger message of giving them housing is that I don't give them some dump. I renovate every place so it's brand new, with manicured landscaping. It fits with how I run my life and run my business. My mom always used to to say to me, "You live your life the way your bed is made in the morning," so I make sure my bed is made every morning!

I make hard decisions

Most of my employees have been with me and, before that, my dad's business, for many years. But, of course, sometimes people will disappoint you and you have to let them go. It's tempting to hold onto someone because you're worried about getting the work done. But I've learned I can't be controlled by fear. I now only hire from word of mouth from my employees, and when I have to let people go, I have more people than I know what to do with applying.

Focusing on appreciating your employees has to come from a genuine place—you have to walk the talk. I live on Nantucket with my wife and children, but right now during the pandemic I'm staying isolated from my family with six of my crew close to our other location on Cape Cod. Living here and working with them isn't as much about making money as it is about showing them we are all in this together. We're working together on jobs all day and I'm cooking them dinner every night. During this crazy time, all of us are learning new ways to work and live. There are a lot of rabbit holes of fear you can go down, but instead I try to think positive thoughts and consistently stay in a place of gratitude, for the sake of me, my business and my employees.

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